proud, irritable, and supercilious, in spite of his good breeding,
and who was not easy to get on with. At the governor's, too, Pyotr
Stepanovitch met with a warm welcome, so much so that he was at once
on an intimate footing, like a young friend, treated, so to say,
affectionately. He dined with Yulia Mihailovna almost every day. He had
made her acquaintance in Switzerland, but there was certainly something
curious about the rapidity of his success in the governor's house. In
any case he was reputed, whether truly or not, to have been at one
time a revolutionist abroad, he had had something to do with some
publications and some congresses abroad, "which one can prove from the
newspapers," to quote the malicious remark of Alyosha Telyatnikov, who
had also been once a young friend affectionately treated in the house of
the late governor, but was now, alas, a clerk on the retired list. But
the fact was unmistakable: the former revolutionist, far from being
hindered from returning to his beloved Fatherland, seemed almost to have
been encouraged to do so, so perhaps there was nothing in it. Liputin
whispered to me once that there were rumours that Pyotr Stepanovitch had
once professed himself penitent, and on his return had been pardoned on
mentioning certain names and so, perhaps, had succeeded in expiating his
offence, by promising to be of use to the government in the future. I
repeated these malignant phrases to Stepan Trofimovitch, and although
the latter was in such a state that he was hardly capable of reflection,
he pondered profoundly. It turned out later that Pyotr Stepanovitch had
come to us with a very influential letter of recommendation, that
he had, at any rate, brought one to the governor's wife from a very
important old lady in Petersburg, whose husband was one of the most
distinguished old dignitaries in the capital. This old lady, who was
Yulia Mihailovna's godmother, mentioned in her letter that Count K. knew
Pyotr Stepanovitch very well through Nikolay Vsyevolodovitch, made much
of him, and thought him "a very excellent young man in spite of his
former errors." Yulia Mihailovna set the greatest value on her
relations with the "higher spheres," which were few and maintained with
difficulty, and was, no doubt, pleased to get the old lady's letter, but
still there was something peculiar about it. She even forced her husband
upon a familiar footing with Pyotr Stepanovitch, so much so that Mr. von
Lembke compl